News

CWA, Indian Unions Join Forces on Call Center Work

August 11, 2006

CWA is working with unions and organizations in India to document the impact of outsourcing and offshoring on call center workers in the United States and India.

A joint project of several Indian union coalitions and organizations, including the New Trade Union Initiative, the Young Professionals Collective, the Centre for Education and Communication and Jobs with Justice-India, and CWA, the final report will be a comprehensive, bi-national review of offshore outsourcing. It will be released in conjunction with Customer Service Week when unions around the globe spotlight customer service workers and their working conditions.

A key goal of the project is to build alliances among U.S and Indian unions to defend and expand workers rights in both countries. The report also will be an important resource on the nature of work at call centers in both countries.

The report reviews conditions and summarizes research on U.S. call center workers and in separate case studies, analyzes the conditions of mainly lower-paid workers at major call centers in India that employ 1,000 to 6,000 people, said Anannya Bhattacharjee, the Jobs with Justice coordinator for the U.S. and India.

It also examines profiles of companies that have offshored CWA-represented work and recommends how workers in both countries can build organizations to help improve their conditions.

For more information on what CWA is doing on outsourcing and offshoring, look for the September issue of the CWA News, "Fighting the Attack on Good Jobs."